For the cleaning of fabric articles consumers currently have the choice of conventional laundry cleaning or dry cleaning.
Conventional laundry cleaning is carried out with relatively large amounts of water, typically in a washing machine at the consumer's home, or in a dedicated place such as a coin laundry. Although washing machines and laundry detergents have become quite sophisticated, the conventional laundry process still exposes the fabric articles to a risk of dye transfer and shrinkage. Significant portions of fabric articles used by consumers are not suitable for cleaning in a conventional laundry process. Even fabric articles that are considered “washing machine safe” frequently come out of the laundry process badly wrinkled and require ironing.
Dry cleaning processes rely on non-aqueous solvents for cleaning. By avoiding water these processes minimize the risk of shrinkage and wrinkling; however, cleaning of soils, particularly water-based and alcohol-based soils, is very limited with these processes. Typically, the dry-cleaner removes such soils by hand prior to the dry-cleaning process. These methods are complex, requiring a wide range of compositions to address the variety of stains encountered, very labor intensive and often result in some localized damage to the treated article.
Non-aqueous washing technologies are now emerging for home use. These technologies typically involve the use of a specialized laundering device equipped to utilize various solvents. An example of such washing technologies is illustrated in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2002/0133886 to Severns et al. In order to obtain the most thorough cleaning, these technologies use various compositions for cleaning.
When dealing with any cleaning process, microbes and microbe concentrations are extremely important. The presence of microbes can cause cleaning results that are unsatisfactory. For instance, microbial infestations in fabric cleaning can result in fabric articles having an unpleasant odor or discoloration.
Non-aqueous washing techniques have many areas where microbial contamination could become problematic. Accordingly there is an unmet need providing antimicrobial agents to laundering devices and compositions for non-aqueous washing.